Various Artists
Album: Irish Ways
Label: IML
Tracks: 34 (2cd)
Website: http://www.irishmusiclicensing.com/

A sprawling behemoth of diverse styles, this double album brings together various points of the Irish musical compass, from Liam Clancy to Mossy Nolan, and many other flavours in between, each of its 34 tracks as beguiling as the next. To many, compilation albums have an element of the curate's egg about them, but in truth, one would have to travel a distance to find as well balanced and engaging a collection as this one.

It kicks off with Dervish, and a pacy reading of Maggie's Lilt, and bookends with the Luka Bloom classic You Couldn't Have Come At A Better Time. In between there is a wealth of listenable material, from the stately-Ríl TG4 from Tríur - to Kila, with Oh, To Kiss Katie. Elsewhere there's a delightfully skittish version of The Dolly Varden from Niamh Ni Charra, and a brilliant version of the Wife Of Usher's Well from Norianna Kennedy.

Irish Ways mines a depth of emotions, styles and influences, and segues from each track to the next with a seamlessness that is as charming as it is unexpected. A sure mark of its peculiar genius is that one other adult family member has booked listening time over the next couple of days. If it's not back on time, there WILL be a row!

Oliver P. Sweeney